 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayesakarmi. The news articles along with the page numbers are displayed here for your reference. The PDF link of the handwritten notes and the timestamping of the news articles is given in the description box as well as in the comment section. Now let us start our today's news analysis. This news article is related to the organization of Islamic cooperation. The news article says that Pakistan may host a ministerial meeting of the OAC in the month of April in 2020. Pakistan says that the focus will be on Jammu and Kashmir and India's Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. So in this context, let us discuss in brief about the organization of Islamic cooperation which is formally known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference which was formed in 1969. OIC has its permanent secretary in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. OIC is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 states. It has its members from four different continents that is from Asia, then from Africa, then from Europe and South America. The organization is the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavours to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony. If you look at the membership of the Organization of Islamic cooperation, majority of its member states are Muslim majority countries such as the Arab countries, while others have significant Muslim populations including several African and South American countries. The important non-Arab member states are Turkey, then Iran, then Indonesia, then Malaysia and Pakistan. Kindly note that the organization has permanent delegations to the United Nations and the European Union. Now we will see the significance of OIC for India. We know that India is home to a significant Muslim population, but still India is not a member or observer in OIC. If you look at the past history, India was invited initially to attend the OIC summit which was held in 1969 in Morocco. But the Indian delegation was forced to return due to the withdrawal of invitation after Pakistan's objection and it was seen as a setback for Indian diplomacy. Now let us come to the 46th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic cooperation. It was held in March 2019 in Abu Dhabi. It had invited India as a guest of honor and our foreign minister had attended this meeting. Note that this happened even when Pakistan was putting severe pressure on OIC. This shows how India was able to reach out to the Muslim world in the last 50 years and this was considered as a huge victory for the Indian diplomacy. Now look at the news article which says that Pakistan has reached out to the Muslim world, especially the Arab world to rise their voice against the changes made by India in the context of Jamun Kashmir. So even if OIC is going to pause a resolution against India, it may not be much important. This could be viewed as a diplomatic setback for India. So in this context we have discussed about OIC and its significance. With this we have come to the end of discussion of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now let us proceed to the next news article. This editorial is based on the recent Good Governance Index released by the government. The syllabus relevant for the discussion of this editorial is highlighted here for your reference. In this editorial the author discusses about the positives and negatives of the Good Governance Index. And this index is a uniform tool across the states and union territories to assess the status of governments and to assess the impact of various interventions taken by their respective governments. That is why author is stating it is a nationwide comparative study of states on Good Governance. This topic we have covered in detail in our 27th December Hindu News Analysis video. You can watch the video for better understanding of Good Governance Index. Now since the index is a comparative study, it will incentivize or motivate the states to comparatively deliver on public services to their citizens. They are encouraged to do better service delivery to get the better ranking in the future. So this is one of the positives of the study and the index. In the article says that Tamil Nadu has scored the highest rank among the big states category. See in the process of ranking to ensure rationality and level playing field the states and union territories are grouped into three categories. One is northeast and hilly states under which 11 states are grouped. And the second category is union territories which has the seven union territories except the union territories of Jomon Kashmir and Ladakh. And the third category is named as big states category. So among the big states Tamil Nadu has scored the highest rank. Now the reason for Tamil Nadu scoring the highest score in the category of big states is ability to ensure stable and smooth delivery of services without much trouble which is considered as the strength of Tamil Nadu. Now if you see the other southern states and union territories that is four neighbors of Tamil Nadu have also shown an impressive performance. Now then the next positive is that even the so-called Bimaru states are seeking to catch up with others in development. See Bimaru is the acronym given for four states which were having poor economic performance comparing to other states. These states are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. But based on the good governance index we can say that they are improving in terms of development. If you look at the composite ranking Madhya Pradesh is among the top 10 of the big states category. Even Rajasthan has been ranked within the top 10 in the five sectors. Now if you look at the first sector that is agriculture and allied sectors all the Bimaru states are within the top 10 category. And the point is that these states can catch up with others in due course of time. The author mentions that it can happen if the political leadership shows the will to overcome historical obstacles and if they focus on development. So these were the positives of the good governance index. Now we will see the negatives or the shortcomings of the good governance index. The main shortcoming is with respect to the indicators. The index has 10 sectors and 50 indicators but some indicators such as farmer's income then prevalence of micro irrigation or prevalence of water conservation systems and inflow of industrial investment have been left out in the calculation of good governance index. Then the next shortcoming is that some indicators have been given disproportionate weightage. For example the indicator that is ease of doing business has been given disproportionately high weightage in the sector of commerce and industries. But the other indicators have been given the lowest weightage. Then the author is noting that there will also be an unending debate over which indicators should get more importance in the design of such a study. That is whether process based indicators should get more importance or outcome based indicators should get more importance. So this is also one of the shortcomings. So to conclude this news article we can say that the good governance index has been developed for the first time by the government. So the government can attempt to improve the index based on these shortcomings so that when the index is released next time it will overcome all these shortcomings. So with this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of this session. Now let us proceed to the next news article. This open editorial discusses about the need for people-centric policies and people-oriented employment and income strategy in our country. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. So in this contest we will be discussing about bottom up growth model. The author mentions that growth must be bottom up to be equitable and sustainable. Here the term equitable refers to the scenario where the benefits of growth are flowing to the poorer sections of the society than the richer sections of the society. So in a bottom up growth model the growth takes care of the needs of lower income groups as well as middle income groups. To be precisely clear a government in a bottom approach thinks about the needs of the poorest sections of the society. Therefore the bottom up growth model requires the government to have necessary policies so that the benefits of growth equitably flow to the poorest sections of the society. So we can say that bottom up growth model is inclusive and it reduces inequalities of income and also reduces the inequality of purchasing power among the lower, middle and high income groups. A nation that has bottom up growth model will have better indicators in terms of health, in terms of education and inclusion of vulnerable sections. Such a nation will be ensuring accessible, affordable and quality services delivery to its citizens. So in such an economy there will be citizen satisfaction as the needs of citizens will be effectively addressed by the local government and local officials. This means that the officials who are responsible for the delivery of services to the citizens will be functioning effectively so that the number of citizens approaching for appeals or grievances, redressal frameworks will be lesser in terms of number. So in this context the author mentions the example of the government of Singapore where the needs of the citizens are addressed effectively at the local level itself. Therefore in a bottom up growth model the focus of almost all policies will be the pupil with more importance to the vulnerable and marginalised sections. This is the reason why such growth model are called as pupil centric growth model. So in pupil centric growth model the focus will be on development but not on growth rates that is growth rates of GDP and these parameters usually don't give the real picture of various sections of society. This is because usually the data on economy given are in average numbers that do not give the real picture of the vulnerable sections or the low income groups. So we can know the real picture by knowing that what is the real per capita income of an individual belonging to the low income group. So the disaggregated data will give the real picture of the economy and various sections of the society. So we can say that bottom up growth model with the disaggregated indicators will represent a better picture than a top down growth model approach. This is because in bottom up growth model approach there will be a citizen participation in almost all fields and there will be social audit then transparency and accountability then the government will be spending the needed or required level of money for education then for health and other public services to ensure better standards of living. As a result an economy will fare better in indices such as ease of living index then indices for other inclusiveness. In the top down approach you can see that the richer becoming richer and the poorer becoming poorer. In case of top down approach the importance of the government will be on the growth but not on development. The government will be focusing on how to make business policies so that foreign companies can bring money to do business in the country. So the focus may be on ease of doing business index of the world bank and focus may not be seen on countries ranks in the indices with respect to inclusive growth or ease of living. So in this regard the author appreciates the stand taken by India with respect to the proposed regional comprehensive economic partnership deal. India decided not to join the deal as joining this deal will harm small producers and farmers so in a bottom up approach the low income groups and lower middle income groups will have higher disposal incomes or the disposal incomes will increase so if there is higher disposal income then it will increase purchasing power of these people. The higher disposal income or purchasing power will create additional demand in the economy and it will increase the production to satisfy the demand. Therefore the consumption or disposal income will drive a significant part of nation's growth and this consumption will guide the industrial production and once the nation has a stronger industrial system the nation's bargaining power in trade deals will increase. So if the policies are focusing on increasing the disposal incomes and increasing purchasing power of the majority of the people in the country then the economy will run smoothly. So this majority will consume goods and services and there will be growth. Now who is this majority? Here majority refers to all people who are not rich. Obviously the population of richer sections are few in the society that is majority or not in the high income group category. This majority in other words refer to middle and lower income groups. If you see the present slowdown in our economy one of the main reasons is the drop in domestic private consumption. This is because people are not having enough money in their hands to purchase their essentials. Now why people are not having money in their hands? This is because there is an employment. Now we'll see how will the bottom up approach will help in tackling this problem. In a people-centric growth model the government understands what are the people's fundamental needs and these fundamental needs of citizens are mainly to have good source of income and to have a reasonable good job. So the government will have to make policies so the jobs and increase in incomes are ensured for the growing population. In such cases the number of frustrated unemployed or under employed youths in the society will be lesser in number. Now you will be able to get an idea that why the author mentions that India needs bottom up approach where it has to develop people-centric employment and income strategy to guide the industry. And also in a long run the strategies has to make Indian industry stronger so as to guide the trade policies with other countries or group of countries. So with this we have discussed that why there is a need for people-centric policies and people-oriented employment and income strategy for our country. With this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the proposal to form an elephant colony in Bandhavgarh forest region of Madhya Pradesh. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Here the elephant colony simply means ensuring a proper habitat for elephants in that region. Now let us know about the state of Madhya Pradesh which is located in central India and is the second largest state in terms of geographical area after Rajasthan. And as per the latest forest survey report of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Madhya Pradesh is the Indian state with maximum forest cover in terms of area. The total forest cover in the state of Madhya Pradesh is 25% of the total geographical area. Now let us discuss in brief about Bandhavgarh National Park which is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh and it is one of the most popular national parks in India and is located in the Vindin Hills of northeast Madhya Pradesh. The area of Bandhavgarh is known for its large biodiversity that is the most important pieces being royal Bengal tigers, then Indian elephants and white tigers which were initially discovered in this region. Similarly, the park also has the largest breeding population of leopards and other species of deer. Kaili notice that the whole park is filled with more than 20 streams such as Johila, Janad and Bunbay and these streams merge into the Soan river which is an important southern tributary of Ganga river. Now let us discuss in brief about the Indian elephant. Kaili notice that the Indian elephant is known as the national heritage animal of India. The natural habitat for Indian elephants includes the central and southern western gods, then northeast India, then eastern India and northern India and also in some parts of southern peninsula of India. Indian elephant is listed as endangered in IUCN Red List and it is also included in schedule one of Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and also included in appendix one of the convention on international trade in endangered species of flora and fauna that is sites convention. Now, let us understand about the elephant population in the state of Madhya Pradesh and for this, we need to understand the elephant census released earlier in this year by the center. The census was titled as the synchronized elephant population estimation and it was conducted under the ages of project elephant division which comes under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. And according to the census, Madhya Pradesh had just seven elephants and Karnataka had the maximum number of elephants, that is about 6049 elephants. Now look at the news article which says that elephants are a migratory species and they are known to travel long distance as groups in search of new habitats. And as per the news article, about 38 elephants from North Chittishgarh have migrated to Bandhagur region in the last year. Even now, they are staying back in the same region. Therefore, the Madhya Pradesh government is planning to provide an elephant colony that is habitat for the elephant herd within the Bandhagur region. So in this contest, we have discussed about Bandhagur forest region in the state of Madhya Pradesh and also we have discussed about the Indian elephant. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This news article is about the portion of your mission and its objectives and approaches to ensure nutritional outcomes across the nation. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. The news article says that about 30% of the funds released under the portion of your mission that is national nutrition mission are utilized by the state governments and the union territories since the launch of the mission. Now in this context, let us discuss in brief about portion of your mission. Here portion means nutrition and abeyan means campaign. Portion stands for Prime Minister overracking scheme for holistic nutrition. The mission that is portion abeyan on one hand looks to synergize all the efforts by leveraging the technology to achieve the desired goals and on the other hand, it intends to convert nutritional awareness into a genandolan. Therefore, portion abeyan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission, which means that convergence of multiple ministries towards a shared vision that is to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022. This portion abeyan mission is implemented by five different ministries, that is Ministry of Human Resources and Development, then Ministry of Women and Child Development, then Ministry of Rural Development, then Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, then Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. That is why portion abeyan is known as multi-ministerial convergence mission. Among these five different ministries, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal ministry. It is also implementing Ministry of Portion Abeyan Mission. The portion abeyan mission aims to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers by reducing the level of stunting, then underweight and low birth weight by 2022. Kindly notice that the portion abeyan program was launched on the occasion of International Women's Day, that is on 8th March, 2018. As we have discussed that portion abeyan mission is based on targeted approach, that is it strives to reduce the level of stunting, then the level of under nutrition, then anemia and low birth weight in children. And the mission also focuses on adolescent girls and pregnant women and lactating mothers. Therefore, it holistically addresses malnutrition in the country. Now, if you look at the three-year targets as per the portion abeyan mission, it has specified three-year targets, that is to reduce stunting, then under nutrition and low birth weights by 2% each year. And it has also mentioned to reduce anemia by 3% each year. The mission also aims to achieve reduction in stunting from 38.4% as per National Family Health Survey of 4 of 2015-16 to 25% by 2022. Now, we'll discuss about financial support for the portion abeyan mission, that is the approved budget of portion abeyan mission for a period of three years is about 9,046 crores and out of which 50% is through government budgetary support and remaining 50% is by the World Bank or other multilateral banks. Now, if you look at the government budgetary support, it would be further shared as 60 to 40 and between the center and union territories with legislature. And in the ratio of 90 is to 10 between the center and northeastern region and Himalayan states. And finally, 100% government budgetary support by the center for union territories without legislature. And this is all about with reference to budget support for portion abeyan mission. Now, if you look at the details of portion abeyan, there is no provision under the portion abeyan to provide nutritious food, but providing supplementary nutrition is a part of Anganwadi services scheme. And portion abeyan ensures the improved utilization of key Anganwadi centers and improved quality of Anganwadi services delivery. And it monitors and supervises and fixes targets and also guide the nutrition-deleted interventions across the various ministries. So we have seen the objectives and targets of portion abeyan mission, but how the portion abeyan ensures nutritional outcomes across the nation. Then what is the targeted approach and convergence involved under this portion abeyan? Kindly notice that portion abeyan is not merely program, but a gen Andolan, which incorporates inclusive participation of public representatives of local bodies, then government departments of the states, then social organizations and the public and private sectors to create awareness about the nutrition requirement and associated problems at the grass root level. So here you can see the picture that is representing the various stakeholders of the mission and various steps to achieve the targeted goals under portion abeyan mission. Now we'll see the different themes of gen Andolan. These 10 key themes of gen Andolan includes anti-natal checkup, then proper diet for pregnant women, then calcium supplementation, then optimal breastfeeding, then complementary food and feeding, then full immunization, including vitamin A supplementation, then growth monitoring and promotion, then anime prevention in children, including adolescent girls, then food fortification, then diarrhea management, then girls' education, then finally hygiene, sanitation and safe drinking water. These are the 10 different themes under gen Andolan. So to summarize this news article, we have seen what is meant by portion abeyan, then about the mission objectives, then about budgetary allocation, then targets and different approaches and the present issues related to proper implementation of the mission, then also about 10 different themes under gen Andolan. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now, let us start our practice question session. Now, consider this question. This question is with reference to OIC, that is Organization of Islamic Cooperation. They have given two statements and you have to choose the correct statements. Statement one says that it is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations. This statement is correct because it is also intergovernmental organization and it is the second largest intergovernmental organization after United Nations with a membership of 57 states. It was formed in 1969 and its headquarters is located at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Now, look at the second statement which says that only Muslim majority Arab countries can be the members of OIC. This statement is incorrect because OIC has members from four different continents that is from Asia and from Africa, then also from Europe, including South America. Therefore, second statement is incorrect statement. So, for this question, option A, that is one only is the correct option. Second question, consider the following statements regarding Indian elephant. They have given three statements and you have to choose the correct statements. Statement one says that it is the national heritage animal of India. Then second statement says that it has been listed as vulnerable in IUCN Red List. Then third statement says that it comes under schedule one of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Here, all the given statements are correct except second statement because the IUCN status of Indian elephant is listed as endangered category but not vulnerable category. So, for this question, option C, that is one and three only is the correct option. Now, look at this question. This question is with reference to good governance index. Here they have given three statements and you have to choose the correct statements. Statement one says that good governance index is a nationwide comparative study of states and union territories on governance. Then second statement says that good governance day is observed on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Then third statement says that good governance index is released by Niti Ayok. So, in this context, you should know about good governance index which has been developed for the first time by the government of India. It has been jointly prepared by the Department of Administrative Reform and Public Grievances under the Ministry of Personal, Public Grievances and Pensions and the Center for Good Governance which is located in Hyderabad. Good governance index is a uniform tool across states and union territories to assess the status of governance and to assess the impact of various interventions taken up by the respective governments. So, we can say the statements one and two are correct statements whereas thought statement is incorrect statement as it was mentioned that good governance index is released by Niti Ayok. Kindly know that good governance day is observed on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. So, for this question option B that is one and two only is the correct option. Now, look at this question. This question is with reference to Portion Abiyan. They have given three statements and you have to choose the correct statements. Statement one says that Portion Abiyan is a nationwide nutritional program which aims to achieve improvement in nutritional status of women, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in a time-bound manner. Then second statement says that it is a central sector scheme. Then third statement says that Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the nodal ministry for implementation of Portion Abiyan. Now, if you look at Portion Abiyan which is a multi-ministerial convergence mission which means that convergence of multiple ministries towards a shared vision. So, in this case the vision is to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022. The mission aims to improve nutritional outcomes for children, then for adolescents, then for pregnant women and lactating mothers by reducing the level of stunting, then underweight, then anemia and low birth weight by 2022. The Portion Abiyan program was launched on the occasion of International Women's Day on 8th March, 2018. The mission aims to use of technology and the convergence across the various nutrition related schemes, across various ministries, with a targeted approach of the services at the gross root level. So, to achieve the shared vision of Portion Abiyan, five different ministries, that is Ministry of Women and Child Development, then Ministry of Human Resources and Development, then Ministry of Rural Development, then Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are working together to achieve the status of model nutrition free India by 2022. Among these five ministries, Ministry of Women and Child Development is designated as nodal ministry for the implementation of Portion Abiyan. Therefore, first statement is correct statement, whereas third statement is incorrect statement because it is mentioned as Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the nodal ministry for implementation. Now, if you look at the second statement, it is mentioned as Portion Abiyan is a central sector scheme. This statement is incorrect because Portion Abiyan is not a central sector scheme, but it is a centrally sponsored scheme. If you look at the government budgetary support, it would be in the ratio of 60 is to 40 and between center and union territories having legislature and shall be in the ratio of 90 is to 10 for northeastern region and Himalayan states and 100% budgetary support for union territories without legislature. Now, if you look at the total budget support for Portion Abiyan, 50% is through government budgetary support and remaining 50% is provided by World Bank and other multilateral development banks. So, for this question, option A, one only is the correct option for this question. Concerning the practice main's question, the question says that how people centric employment and income strategy can guide the industrial growth of India. This is a 10 marks question and you have to write in 150 words. So, for this question, you can post your written answers in the comment section. The posted answers would be evaluated and suitable feedback will be given for the posted answers. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of today's engineers analysis. If you like the video, please do like, share, comment and subscribe Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.